Azami Nakiri
}} Azami Nakiri (薙切 薊 Nakiri Azami), né Nakamura (中村 Nakamura) is the biological father of Erina Nakiri. He is currently the Director of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy and a previous 1st seat of the Elite Ten Council. Appearance Azami has slick black hair with a streak of white hair swept into the back. He is pale-skinned with black eyes and a notably grim looking face. In his high school days, his white streak of hair was a long bang that went down his face. Upon his introduction, Azami’s outfit is predominantly black, consisting of a trench coat, vest, undershirt, leather gloves, slacks, and shoes. His tie is silver in color. Personality Like his daughter, Azami is haughty, declaring that no one present at Erina's Moon Banquet Festival booth was qualified to even taste her food, even throwing blatant insults at some very notable figureheads in the culinary industry. Cold, rude, and domineering, he is the only person to ever cause the normally confident Erina to become a terrified mess due to his abusive methods of training Erina's God's Tongue. Like most of the Nakiri family, Azami wishes to bring the culinary industry to its greatest heights, though he considers food that is not high quality to be nothing but fodder and forcibly instilled this doctrine into his daughter. Much of his motivations comes from a perception that the current cullinary industry was corrupt as it had tainted his beloved senpai, Jōichirō Saiba. He has the capacity to show compassion and care for the students of Tōtsuki, however, he is much more ruthless than Senzaemon and this kind demeanor is more of a facade than anything. History During his high school years, Azami attended Tōtsuki and was a member of the Polar Star Dormitory Golden Era. In his first year at Tōtsuki, he obtained the 3rd Seat of the Elite Ten Council under then third years Gin Dōjima and Jōichirō Saiba. The latter of the two inspired Azami due to his unique talent and natural genius. However, a certain incident involving Jōichirō caused Azami to believe that the culinary industry was rotten and needed to change. In his second year of Tōtsuki, he eventually obtained the 1st seat. In his adult life, he later married into the Nakiri family and sired a daughter named Erina. After finding out her latent abilities, Azami began subjecting Erina to a brutal training regime, forcing her to compare dishes and throw away all the contents of the dishes that were inferior. If Erina showed any sort of resistance, he was not above using physical force to ingrain his doctrine of food into his daughter. Eventually, Senzaemon caught wind of Azami's brainwashing and promptly exiled him from the Nakiri Family and the Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. Save a few newspaper articles and word-of-mouth knowledge, Azami's entire presence in Tōtsuki was effectively erased, leaving no trace of his history. In the meantime, Azami began to create a culinary business and community solely for the wealthy in America and began to expand his business in to the East, Middle East, and southern Asia. Despite his excommunication from Tōtsuki, Azami managed to contact the Elite Ten Council shortly before the Moon Banquet Festival and proposed to them to make himself the director of Tōtsuki. Plot Moon Banquet Festival Main Article: Moon Banquet Festival Arc Azami, after many years, finally returned to Tōtsuki on the fifth day of the Moon Banquet Festival. At the time, Erina was running a booth which Azami paid a visit to.Shokugeki no Soma chapter 131, pages 18-19 Upon arrival, he greeted his daughter and walked into the main dining room. In a matter of seconds, Azami insulted the patrons, claiming that they were unworthy to eat her food.Shokugeki no Soma chapter 133, pages 4-5 Even when confronted by Shingo Andō and Natsume Sendawara, Azami coldly continued to insult and reject their accomplishments. He explained his view of cuisine to that of appreciation of fine arts, something that requires an artistic sense, quality of character, and proper education.Shokugeki no Soma chapter 133, page 11 Eager to see how much his daughter has grown in skills since his excommunication, Azami promptly sat down at an open table that Erina had left open for Jōichirō Saiba in case he came, despite her attempts to protest.Shokugeki no Soma chapter 133, pages 14-16 Just as Erina nearly began to serve Azami, Sōma Yukihira paid the booth an unexpected visit as well.Shokugeki no Soma chapter 133, pages 18-19 Not knowing who he was, Sōma asked Azami if he could share the table with him, prompting Azami to lose interest and leave the establishment.Shokugeki no Soma chapter 134, pages 5-6 As he left the booth, he was stopped by a posse of cars lead by Senzaemon himself. The father and son got into a heated argument about their respective visions of what Tōtsuki should be for the culinary industry.Shokugeki no Soma chapter 134, pages 11-12 Although Senzaemon was nearly able to force him to leave, Azami brandished an official document signed by the Elite Ten Council. In it, six of the ten members including Eishi Tsukasa and Rindō Kobayashi, the current first and second seats, voted to have Azami appointed as the new director of Tōtsuki. The only 4 who did not vote in favor were Satoshi Isshiki, Terunori Kuga, Tōsuke Megishima, and Erina. With the majority of the Elite Ten backing him up, Azami walked away, declaring himself the new "King" of Tōtsuki.Shokugeki no Soma chapter 134, pages 14-19 Central Main article: Central Arc News of Azami's replacement of Senzaemon quickly spread across campus and was officiated within a few days. At his appointment speech, Azami stated that he was honored to now carry the reins of Tōtsuki and was eager to set the Academy forward on a "better" path. Though his friendly and caring facade was welcomed warmly by some of the attendees, some of the more notable guests were uncertain to the true sincerity of his words and his impending actions. Azami quickly went to work pulling Erina back under his wing, first by relieving Hisako of her duties as Erina's Secretary, opting to take that role for himself. Despite Erina's clear upset feelings over his decision, she was ultimately unable to stop Azami. Later, Azami received word from a servant that Erina was missing from her room. Without showing any form of concern, he figured that Alice smuggled her out, but was fine with the news, even canceling the plans he had for her the next day. At his first meeting with the Academy board, Azami introduced his new education method for Tōtsuki, much to the shock of the board members. His new format for the Academy requires all students to cook dishes selected by a Central group. Ultimately, all students will be able to learn to cook Elite Ten Council worthy dishes. Although most of the board members opposed, Roland Chapelle especially, his format was nonetheless put into immediate effect. Additionally he officially disbanded all seminars and Research Societies on campus. Finally, he targeted the Polar Star Dormitory, forcing them to close down its doors. After the [[Yukihira Vs. Eizan Shokugeki|Yukihira Vs. Eizan Shokugeki]] ended, Central announced that the seminars and Research Societies could avoid their disbandment with a Shokugeki with the promise of neutral judging. That night, Azami paid Polar Star Dormitory a visit here he was greeted at the entrance by Sōma. Azami let himself into the dormitory and immediately headed to the dinning hall where he found Erina and the other Polar Star residents. Immediately the residents rushed forward to block him from Erina, but after beckoning her to come, Erina walked to him. However, instead of taking her back to the mansion, Azami merely petted her head and assured the residents that she could stay in Polar Star as long as she wanted. After Fumio greeted him, Azami revealed that he was once a Polar Star resident himself back in his heyday, much to their shock. However, Azami warned them that their short lived victory is but a prelude for an impending "checkmate". As he prepared to head back to the Nakiri Mansion, he was confronted by Sōma who was curious as to why Azami was targeting a place that he possibly could have had an emotional attachment to. Azami brushed him off, saying that it does not belong in his world, albeit in it's current state. However, he reminisced the Golden Days when he spent it with a respected senpai of his, stating that Jōichirō Saiba and his dishes "shone with a brilliance" that still remained in him over 30 years later. Upon hearing this, Sōma informed him that Jōichirō was his father. Taken aback slightly, Azami wondered what he mean and Sōma restated that Jōichirō was his father. Just then he noticed Erina, who was experiencing a heavy amount of shock herself, and the two wondered how the other knew Jōichirō. As Azami pondered a bit, he realized that there was more to the story than just mere coincidences of the age of their children and Erina's exposure to Jōichirō. As he prepared to depart, he told Sōma that his revolution was all for the sake of correcting the "rotten cullinary world" that "tainted his dear Saiba-senpai." A few days later, Azami continued with his plans, next by officially dismissing Satoshi Isshiki, Terunori Kuga, and Tōsuke Megishima from their positions as Elite Ten Council members since they did not agree with his ideals. Cooking Style Azami himself has not been shown cooking. However, he has considerable skill considering that he obtained the 3rd Seat of the Elite Ten Council as early as the fall of his first year at Tōtsuki and later a 1st Seat in his second year. Trivia *''Azami'' (薊) literally means "thistle". Nakiri (薙切) uses the kanji for "to mow down" (薙 Na) and "to cut" (切 Kiri). References Navigation es:Azami Nakiri zh:薙切薊 Category:Male Characters Category:Chef Category:Nakiri Family Category:Tōtsuki Culinary Academy Staff Category:Elite Ten Council